Can chest pain after a car wreck in Texas be serious? Yes. While chest pain sometimes results from minor bruising or muscle strain, it can also signal life-threatening conditions such as fractured ribs, internal bleeding, or damage to your heart or lungs. You should seek emergency medical care immediately if you experience chest pain or difficulty breathing after a collision.
A car accident happens in seconds, but the injuries can last a lifetime. When your chest slams against the steering wheel, dashboard, or seatbelt, the force can cause damage you cannot see from the outside. Some injuries show up right away. Others take hours or even days to develop. That is why medical attention should never wait, and why you need a legal team that understands exactly what you are facing.
Why Clients Trust Varghese Summersett for Car Accident Injuries
At Varghese Summersett Injury Law Group, our personal injury team brings decades of combined experience fighting for accident victims across Texas. Partner Ty Stimpson, a graduate of Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law, leads our injury practice with a focus on securing maximum compensation for clients who have suffered serious harm through no fault of their own.
Our firm includes more than 70 legal professionals working from offices in Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Southlake. We have recovered millions for Texas families dealing with medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering after devastating car accidents. Several of our attorneys are former prosecutors who understand exactly how insurance companies build their cases to minimize what they pay you.
When you call us, you speak directly with an attorney who can evaluate your claim. We work on contingency, which means you pay nothing unless we win your case. There are no upfront costs and no out-of-pocket fees. If another driver’s negligence caused your accident and injuries, you deserve compensation, and we fight to get it.
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What Causes Chest Pain After a Car Accident?
Chest pain following a collision can result from several different types of trauma. Understanding what may have caused your injury helps doctors treat you effectively and helps your legal team build a stronger case for compensation.
Seatbelt Injuries
Seatbelts save lives, but the same restraining force that keeps you from flying through the windshield can also cause significant chest injuries. When your body lurches forward at high speed and the seatbelt locks across your chest and shoulder, the pressure can bruise your chest wall, fracture ribs, or cause internal damage. The severity depends on the force of impact, your seating position, and your body type.
Airbag Deployment Injuries
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), airbags reduce crash fatalities by nearly 30 percent. However, airbags deploy at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. That explosive force can cause chest bruising, abrasions, and even rib fractures. If the airbag strikes your chest at the wrong angle, the injuries can be severe.
Steering Wheel and Dashboard Impact
In frontal collisions and rear-end accidents, your chest may strike the steering wheel or dashboard. This blunt force trauma can fracture your sternum, break multiple ribs, cause internal bleeding, damage your lungs, or injure your heart. These impact injuries often require emergency surgery and extended hospitalization.
What Symptoms Should You Watch For?
Chest injuries do not always announce themselves immediately. Adrenaline masks pain. Internal injuries develop over time. If you experience any of the following symptoms after a car accident, seek medical evaluation without delay:
- Chest pain or discomfort: Any pain ranging from dull aches to sharp stabbing, especially if it worsens when you breathe deeply, cough, or move
- Shortness of breath: Difficulty breathing may indicate lung damage, rib fractures, or internal bleeding pressing on your lungs
- Visible bruising or swelling: Marks across your chest from the seatbelt or steering wheel impact often signal deeper tissue damage
- Tenderness when touched: Pain when pressure is applied to your chest area suggests possible fractures
- Rapid or irregular heartbeat: The heart sits behind your breastbone, and chest trauma can affect cardiac function
- Coughing up blood: This symptom indicates internal bleeding and requires immediate emergency care
- Dizziness or weakness: These may signal reduced oxygen or internal blood loss
Do not assume you are fine because you walked away from the accident. Some chest injuries, including cardiac contusions and slow internal bleeding, may not produce obvious symptoms until hours later when the situation becomes critical.
How Are Chest Injuries Diagnosed and Treated?
Emergency room doctors will typically order imaging tests including chest X-rays, CT scans, or MRIs to identify the extent of your injuries. They may also run blood tests and cardiac monitoring to check for heart damage. Treatment depends on what they find.
For minor injuries such as bruising or small rib fractures, treatment often involves rest, pain management with over-the-counter or prescription medications, and ice therapy. Doctors typically recommend avoiding strenuous activity while the injuries heal.
More serious injuries require aggressive treatment. Broken ribs that threaten to puncture your lungs may need surgical stabilization. A punctured lung requires a chest tube to drain air or fluid and may require surgery. Internal bleeding often demands emergency surgery to repair damaged blood vessels or organs. Cardiac injuries require monitoring in an intensive care unit.
Recovery timelines vary dramatically. Simple bruising may heal in two to three weeks. Multiple rib fractures can take three months or longer. If you develop complications such as pneumonia from being unable to breathe deeply, or chronic pain that requires ongoing treatment, your recovery could extend for a year or more.
What Legal Options Do You Have for Chest Pain After a Texas Car Wreck?
Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33, if another driver’s negligence caused your accident, you have the right to pursue compensation for your injuries. Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule, meaning you can recover damages as long as you were not more than 50 percent responsible for the collision.
To establish liability in a car accident case, your legal team must prove that the other driver owed you a duty of care (all drivers owe this to others on the road), they breached that duty through negligent actions such as speeding, distracted driving, or running a red light, their breach directly caused the collision, and you suffered actual damages as a result.
Once liability is established, you can pursue compensation for your economic damages including medical bills (both past and future), lost wages if you missed work, reduced earning capacity if your injuries prevent you from returning to your previous job, and property damage to your vehicle. You can also pursue non-economic damages for physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental anguish.
In rare cases involving extreme recklessness such as drunk driving, you may also be eligible for punitive damages. These are designed to punish the at-fault driver and deter similar conduct.
What Is the Deadline for Filing Your Claim?
Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003, you have two years from the date of your car accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. If you miss this deadline, the court will almost certainly dismiss your case, and you will lose your right to compensation.
However, waiting until the deadline approaches can hurt your case. Evidence disappears. Witnesses forget details. Medical records become harder to connect directly to the accident. The sooner you contact an experienced car accident lawyer, the stronger your case will be.
Can You Sue the Airbag Manufacturer?
If a defect in your vehicle’s airbag caused or worsened your chest injuries, you may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer. Automakers and airbag manufacturers have a legal obligation to design and produce safety equipment that works as intended without causing unreasonable harm.
Product liability cases are complex because you must prove the specific defect that caused your injury, whether that was a design flaw, manufacturing error, or failure to warn consumers of known risks. Our attorneys work with engineers and medical experts to investigate these claims and identify all potentially liable parties.
How Insurance Companies Try to Minimize Your Claim
Insurance companies are not on your side. Their job is to pay out as little as possible on every claim. After a car accident, you can expect the at-fault driver’s insurance company to contact you quickly, often within days. They may sound friendly and concerned. They may offer you a fast settlement before you even know the full extent of your injuries.
Do not fall for it. Common insurance company tactics include asking for recorded statements where adjusters will try to get you to say something they can use against you, offering quick lowball settlements before you understand what your claim is actually worth, claiming your injuries were pre-existing conditions unrelated to the accident, arguing your treatment was unnecessary or excessive, and delaying the process hoping you will give up or accept less.
Having an experienced personal injury lawyer handling your claim changes the dynamic completely. Insurance companies know which law firms will take cases to trial if necessary. When they see Varghese Summersett representing you, they know we will fight for every dollar you deserve.
What Steps Should You Take Right Now?
If you are experiencing chest pain after a car accident in Texas, take these steps to protect both your health and your legal rights:
First, get medical attention immediately. Go to the emergency room or urgent care. Tell the doctors exactly what happened in the accident and describe all your symptoms, even ones that seem minor. Ask for copies of all medical records and imaging studies.
Second, document everything. If you have not already done so, photograph your injuries, your vehicle damage, and the accident scene if possible. Write down what you remember about the crash while details are fresh. Get contact information for any witnesses.
Third, do not give statements to insurance companies without speaking to a lawyer first. You are not required to provide a recorded statement, and anything you say can be used to reduce or deny your claim.
Fourth, contact an experienced car accident attorney who can evaluate your case, deal with the insurance companies on your behalf, and make sure you do not miss any deadlines. Consultations at Varghese Summersett are free, and we can usually tell you in the first conversation whether you have a strong case.
Local Resources
If you have been injured in a car accident in Texas, these resources may be helpful:
- John Peter Smith Hospital – Level 1 Trauma Center serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County
- Parkland Memorial Hospital – Level 1 Trauma Center serving Dallas County
- Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center – Level 1 Trauma Center serving Houston and Harris County
- Texas Crash Record Information System – For obtaining official crash reports
What to Expect From Varghese Summersett
When you hire our team, you get attorneys who answer your calls, explain your options in plain language, and fight aggressively for maximum compensation. We handle all communication with insurance companies so you can focus on healing. We investigate your accident thoroughly, work with medical experts to document your injuries fully, and build a case designed to get you everything you are owed.
Most importantly, we work on contingency. You pay nothing unless we recover money for you. There is no risk to finding out what your case is worth. If we take your case, it is because we believe we can win it.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Chest Pain After a Car Wreck
How long should I monitor chest pain after a car accident?
You should seek medical attention immediately for any chest pain after an accident. Even if initial symptoms seem minor, continue monitoring for at least 72 hours. If pain worsens, spreads, or you develop new symptoms like shortness of breath or dizziness, return to the emergency room right away. Some injuries like slow internal bleeding may not become apparent for days.
Can I file a claim if I did not go to the doctor immediately after my accident?
Yes, you can still file a claim, though waiting to seek medical care may complicate your case. Insurance companies often argue that delayed treatment means your injuries were not caused by the accident or were not serious. However, many chest injuries have delayed onset. A delayed pain after a car accident is common. An experienced attorney can help present medical evidence showing your injuries are accident-related.
What if the at-fault driver has no insurance?
If the at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured, you may still recover compensation through your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage. This coverage is not mandatory in Texas, but many policies include it. Our attorneys can review your policy and identify all available sources of compensation.
How much is my chest injury claim worth?
The value of your claim depends on several factors including the severity of your injuries, your medical expenses, how much work you missed, whether you will need future treatment, and the impact on your quality of life. Minor injuries may settle for a few thousand dollars. Serious injuries requiring surgery and extended recovery can be worth hundreds of thousands or more. We evaluate every case individually and fight for maximum compensation.
Should I accept the insurance company’s first settlement offer?
Almost never. Initial settlement offers are typically far below what your claim is actually worth. Insurance adjusters often make quick offers hoping you will accept before understanding the full extent of your injuries and damages. Consult with a personal injury attorney before accepting any offer. Once you sign a release, you cannot go back and ask for more money even if your injuries turn out to be worse than expected.
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If you or someone you love is suffering from chest pain after a car wreck in Texas, you do not have to face the insurance companies alone. Call Varghese Summersett today at (817) 203-2220 for a free consultation. We are available 24/7, and we only get paid if we win your case.
